Congregations celebrate various rites and rituals as a way of commemorating the significant life events and experiences of their members. By blessing something or someone, God’s presence is invoked and the sacred is invited into the mundane, the holy into the ordinary. This book offers pastors and other church leaders a collection of ready-made, easily adaptable blessings and rituals for a variety of occasions. The book is divided into four major chapters: Children, Adults, Everyday Life, and Pastoral Care. It includes blessings and rituals for such occasions as: welcome into a home or neighborhood, receiving a first Bible, graduation from high school, receiving a driver’s license, blessing the backpacks and lunch-boxes for a new school year, and pet funerals. Pastoral care rituals include such occasions as grief, lost love, anger, and declining health. Key Benefits: • Provides readers with a source of blessings and rituals for key moments in congregational members’ lives and meaningful ways to celebrate and support their life experiences and transitions • Shows readers how the intentional use of blessings and rituals within the congregation helps reveal to the community God’s presence in every phase of life

Honor life’s milestones and bring sacredness into everyday life. The Book of Blessings and Rituals shows you how to create ceremony and meaning around the most important events in you life. Drawing from different world traditions, leading metaphysical teacher Athena Perrakis presents blessings to cover a wide array of occasions and intentions, including holidays and sacred days, love, healing, protection, prosperity and success, lunar blessings and rituals, and manifestation. Organized by month, you'll be able to celebrate the sacred all year long. DIY projects and rituals will help you perform each blessing. You’ll learn how to construct medicine bundles and altars, which crystals to use to amplify the rituals or clear energy, and how to smudge for clearing and protection. In addition, you’ll learn how to use the power of invocations and blessings to set the energy of your home or event and to assist in amplifying goals and intentions. Deepen your experience of the sacred, find inspiration, and heal with this non-denominational guide to blessings and rituals.

An eloquent anthology honoring the wonders and challenges of life on earth and celebrating the seasons of our lives. The mysteries and delights of life on earth are illuminated in this richly eclectic collection of poetry, wisdom, prayers, and blessings from thinkers and writers around the world. Here you will find the poetry of Hildgard of Bingen and Gary Snyder; the political wisdom of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr.; a treasury of women's prayers, classical verse from China and Japan; and beautiful chants and prayers by Native Americans. A joyous affirmation of the human journey in all its forms, in all its struggles and glories.

An Evangelism Tool for a New Generation. Today’s seekers are far more likely to be open to prayer than a traditional gospel presentation. This beautifully designed book is unintimidating, inviting, and effective. It’s a seven-day journey through the Lord’s prayer. Each day explores a new petition in the Lord’s prayer and helps show the reader the prayer’s importance and impact. The author offers reflection questions, prayer prompts, and sample prayers to help readers begin and deepen their personal journeys in prayer. It’s a perfect resource for anyone exploring the Christian faith or young Christians learning to pray. Plus it works well one-on-one and in small groups.

Simply Jesus. What would it mean to fix our attention fully on the Person of Christ? To approach Him apart from systems, formulas, religion, and well-meaning Christian culture? To see Jesus Himself? And how would that change us? Moody Bible College President Joseph Stowell ponders these probing questions -- showing through dramatic stories and surprising insights how believers can experience significant life-change as they encounter Christ -- our model of understanding, love, and courage, today. Simply Jesus identifies experiences that can awaken the realization of our basic need to focus on Him ... like temptation, trouble, and surrender. A book intended for both spiritual seekers and Christians who are ready for a fresh, personal encounter with the Savior their heart searches for. Clear, stylish typeset, with user-friendly links to referenced Scripture.

Life is full of ups and downs. Whether we like it or not, we are on a constant roller coaster of successes and failures, major life changes, losses, and transitions. For our happiness and inner peace, we often need help in negotiating these passages through turbulent times. We in the North American culture have forgotten the magic our ancestors knew--how to use rituals for a successful life journey. This book will teach you the secrets of how to create personal, family, and communal rituals that will change your life. Through this book readers will learn: - how to create rituals for life stages and transitions - how to heal and transform relationships - the differences between ceremony and ritual - the important elements of an effective ritual - the skills to move forward through times of loss and change - how to repair ritual failures +

The twentieth anniversary edition of a transformative blueprint for ancestral healing—featuring new material and gateways, from the renowned herbalist, natural health expert, and healer of women’s bodies and souls “This book was one of the first that helped me start practices as a young woman that focused on my body and spirit as one.”—Jada Pinkett Smith Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, holistic healing plant-based medicine, KMT temple teachings, and The Rites of Passage guidance, Queen Afua teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the relationships we attract, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest. With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.